Excellent report, Nigel. Love that bit "As set two opened, Murray ... looked as tired as a nappy salesman at a convention of bedwetters."

What wasn't funny though was Murray's attitude. The match was barely halfway through the 1st set when the all too familiar gurning and chuntering started. So much for his boast that he'd trained so that he would peak at the USO because, sadly, this peak quickly turned into a trough of despond in this match, saved only by a more spirited 3rd set and some signs of a fight early in the 4th.

Murray is undoubtedly the author of his own downfall on these big occasions. The game necessary to win a Slam is almost there, but the mind is not. I've said it before and will say it again - he needs a coach who will knock his childish behaviour on the head and instil some much-needed discipline into him.

Also he has to get his self-belief back before he becomes totally demoralised by all these losses. Again a coach could help, but again I repeat the well-worn mantra that he badly needs to consult a sports psychologist in order to get the mental side of his game sorted out.

I believe that until these issues are resolved a Slam will continue to elude him - and what a waste of great potential that is going to be.

Having woken up to the news that again Our Andy looses in the semi finals i am dissappointed for Andy. I too could not bear to watch the match after he lost the second set, and so went to bed thinking it would be all over in three, but alas to my suprise our Andy managed to take a set off Rafa. But by then regardless of this mini oasis, from the match write up and various comments posted here, it seems, this reprieve for Andy was not a turning point.

I'm not going to sit here and dissect his every shot and look for reasons as why he lost, Andy knows that at the highest level of the game if he truly wants to be part of the grandslam club, then he has to seriously work on his mental side. How he chooses to do this, is up to him, but its evident to me this is the next step he must take. A previous post here by "MT" where he starts it off by stating:

"Andy played some amazing tennis at times in that match............. Nadal was relentlessly good"

sums up the match for me when looking at the mental aspects of it. While it seems according to match reports, posts and such like that Andy again seemed to be doing battle with himself aswell as with Rafa, whilst Rafa according to reports played with a clear clarity of purpose. What now for Andy, well might i suggest he takes a well earned break, regroups and perhaps looks inwardly and honestly at himself and those he surrounds himself with. He does not need to go away and work harder, how much harder can a person work, there has to come a point when you either admit to yourself that your best is just not good enough, even when you gave it 110% consistently or that you will change tact and try another approach other than continually striving for phyisical perfection.

On a more positive note, we would all do well to remember that Andy is only the seventh man in the open era to reach every single grandslam semi final in the same calendar year. Well done Andy, and all the best of luck for the future, i sincerely hope that one day your dreams for yourself are realised.

Well said as always P.T. I really believe Andy will get his dream soon.

Great game from Andy, with some stunning shots. Nadal was just too ruthless, a lot of shots Andy made nobody would get back but Nadal did, he is just too good he was not No.1 for nothing. I'm proud of Andy getting to the semis after such tough scheduling.Behind Andy always!

Well said C.M. me too, think i might just drink the champagne anyway.!!

Andy didn't lose this match because of his shots. His attitude was abysmal thoughout. There was a black aura of negativity around him from the coin toss to the 'I don't give a toss' final set.

Watching Nadal and Murray, it was like seeing positive and negative. On one side of the net was a beautiful little boat bobbing in a Majorcan harbour on a summer's day; on the other, a rusty bike parked outside the Dunblane Working Men's Club in the drizzle of a November evening.

McEnroe had a bad attitude, but he used it to fire himself up. Murray uses his to put the fires out. It needs sorting or he'll never win a slam.

Andy's body language and mental attitude is all that separates him from the top guys. He has the tennis, but he was so grump and irritable and self-critical most of the match, and yet when he actually just got on with playing tennis, stayed calm and focused he won the set.

I just can't see Andy beating a Fed/Nole/Rafa twice at the end of a slam which is what is required. He is so frustrating to watch, he still lacks maturity as a tennis player in these games. He did play well yesterday and he did fight hard and it was a long match, but he threw the second and fourth sets away with with his negative attitude.

Andy needs something else, there has to be change if he is to win a slam, if he believes he can. He would be a great project for someone, if he was prepared to let them into his crazy world, as we all know Andy likes to be boss at all times.

He may get lucky and not have to play any of the top guys to win a slam, that could happen. But right now he is giving away too much of an advantage.

He needs to grow up and get someone on board who can help him because as much as I love Andy his demeanour on court yesterday for a lot of the match was nothing short of embarrassing. He looked like a crazy man, not a grand slam champion.

What wasn't funny though was Murray's attitude. The match was barely halfway through the 1st set when the all too familiar gurning and chuntering started. So much for his boast that he'd trained so that he would peak at the USO because, sadly, this peak quickly turned into a trough of despond in this match, saved only by a more spirited 3rd set and some signs of a fight early in the 4th.

Murray is undoubtedly the author of his own downfall on these big occasions. The game necessary to win a Slam is almost there, but the mind is not. I've said it before and will say it again - he needs a coach who will knock his childish behaviour on the head and instil some much-needed discipline into him.

His rants and shoe hitting is ugly and unprofessional. Such as waste of energy.

I too went to bed when he was broken in the second set, hoping to rise this morning and find he'd clawed his way back. Thank goodness for Sky's fast forward button.

In his post match interview with friend Petchey he says "I know the right tactics to play against him and I didn't play them" I wonder why. Rusedski thought he should have mixed it up more because give Nadal a rhythm and he'll take advantage of it and he did.

Not sure who's most gutted - Federer, Woczniacki or Murray.

Spoke to my husband on the phone this morning and he feels that while Jimmy White never won because of mental weakness, Murray falls marginally short in his game and must improve if he's ever going to win a Slam. He's still got age on his side, so we have to hope he can step it up another gear.

He has had a good year, he is the best British player ever and if he can bring everything together I'm sure his dream will eventually be fulfilled.

'While it remains so, critics will say his membership is not fully paid up, that he remains the group's d'Artagnan, forever hanging on to the coat-tails of the Three Musketeers who continue to steal the game's major prizes.'

Whilst I agree absolutely with the above, the interesting thing for me was that after Federer lost his service game when serving for the match he was totally deflated - the fight had gone completely. That is most unlike the Federer of old. I think the stage is set for Andy to step into Fed's shoes as number 3 - perhaps by the end of this year - in other words the 3rd musketeer with Fed assuming the role of d'Artagnan. Federer is 30 now - I can't see him continuing if he drops out of the top 4 and is no longer in the top flight of seeds for the Masters/Majors.

Great game from Andy, with some stunning shots. Nadal was just too ruthless, a lot of shots Andy made nobody would get back but Nadal did, he is just too good he was not No.1 for nothing. I'm proud of Andy getting to the semis after such tough scheduling.Behind Andy always!

Hi Chris , not sure if you are ChrisMac from the old forum - I am Suzi from the old forum. Think you sent an email to Andy for me when I was cheering on at Queens 2009 - not many Andy fans there that day and I was heard shouting "kit kat" by everyone LOL!!

Anyway, fast forward to the present...... I am so gutted for Andy - yet again he has just not made it!! We will have the usual Andy bashing and analysis of everything about his tennis and team, his self expression on court, and so on and so forth, probably even down to the colour of his underpants blahn blah blah

What I feel is that the old Andy, who I first started to follow was more confident, a bit of a Bravheart really and not so worried about what everyone else thought and most important, he was not under the pressure he is today. Sometimes when you try too hard at something, it just does not work, gluten free diet and all Maybe Andy needs to get a good sport mentor and just relax a bit about the whole thing.

He often gets this "rabbit in the headlights" look and you can see his whole body tensing up. Having said that, Andy is one of the few players that makes tennis exciting to watch. The guy has charisma and love him or hate him, you can't dispute that!! He has a personality and is not afraid of showing it on court. It was through Andy that I got interested in tennis and I have seen him play live many times now. You can feel the guys's passion for the sport, it is palpable and real. I will always suppport Andy and I hope he does dip into this forum and read the positives written about him.

It must be so difficult to lose a match like last night and then have to read a load of pseudo psycho analytical rubbish about yourself.

Ignore ALL THAT ANDY AND CARRY ON BEING THE BRAVEHEART you really are. Always rooting for you!!

'While it remains so, critics will say his membership is not fully paid up, that he remains the group's d'Artagnan, forever hanging on to the coat-tails of the Three Musketeers who continue to steal the game's major prizes.'

Whilst I agree absolutely with the above, the interesting thing for me was that after Federer lost his service game when serving for the match he was totally deflated - the fight had gone completely. That is most unlike the Federer of old. I think the stage is set for Andy to step into Fed's shoes as number 3 - perhaps by the end of this year - in other words the 3rd musketeer with Fed assuming the role of d'Artagnan. Federer is 30 now - I can't see him continuing if he drops out of the top 4 and is no longer in the top flight of seeds for the Masters/Majors.

I suspect Federer would not want the embarrassment of sliding down the rankings and will retire before that happens. What Murray will have to watch out for is hungry newbies coming over the horizon.

I am taking Andy's comments on board when he says that its easy for those on the side to comment what he should or shouldn't do. He knows what went wrong last night and now he is paying the price for it but he can take heart that some of the shots he did play last night were up there with the best. Speaking of which, Andy's comment to Mark Petchy on only being the 7th player to be in the semi finals in the four grand slams in the one year, to me gives on indication to Andy's thought process when he said "I am not as good as they are" maybe I am over analysing but I thought it was a strange remark to say at the time and nearing the end of a grand slam! That aside, to me Andy is always a joy to watch whether he plays up to his sometimes high standard or not, I for one, will always support him and as I have said sometime ago in a previous post on another thread I never thought he would win US Open but AO is another matter. Not to worry Andy, just think how the Frauderer is feeling this morning!

I am taking Andy's comments on board when he says that its easy for those on the side to comment what he should or shouldn't do. He knows what went wrong last night and now he is paying the price for it but he can take heart that some of the shots he did play last night were up there with the best. Speaking of which, Andy's comment to Mark Petchy on only being the 7th player to be in the semi finals in the four grand slams in the one year, to me gives on indication to Andy's thought process when he said "I am not as good as they are" maybe I am over analysing but I thought it was a strange remark to say at the time and nearing the end of a grand slam!

I thought the same thing also, very strange statement to make, one made without any visible pressure or direct questioning. As a psychologist this type of reflective speech provides me with many insights about Andy and just how he himself sees himself when contrasted with the other members of the "big four club"

Yeah, well come on everybody. Let’s do it all again. Let’s analyse it and re-analyse it all again. Let’s post all that same recycled stuff -- in an ever-changing-sequence of words -- ever stating the same things. But the next time you see him wondering around the padded cell that can sometimes seem to be his baseline, ranting and raving like a madman -- with legs like bricks -– tugging at his shirt or his shorts or his wrist-bands, or his shoes and drawing attention to an existing or non-existing injured leg or shoulder or back, remember then that the only real reference that has been echoing down the halls of Murray’s World for the last two years or so is this – succinctly stated, once again, by Aileen…….

“Murray is undoubtedly the author of his own downfall on these big occasions. The game necessary to win a Slam is almost there, but the mind is not. I've said it before and will say it again - he needs a coach who will knock his childish behaviour on the head and instil some much-needed discipline into him.

Also he has to get his self-belief back before he becomes totally demoralised by all these losses. Again a coach could help, but again I repeat the well-worn mantra that he badly needs to consult a sports psychologist in order to get the mental side of his game sorted out.

I believe that until these issues are resolved a Slam will continue to elude him - and what a waste of great potential that is going to be.”

Yes, “what a waste of great potential that is going to be.” I remember, in the middle of 2005 New Zealand night, having decided to try and rekindle my old interest in tennis I was sitting-up with my then 17 years old son to watch Wimbledon on the telly. This young Scottish wild card came on to play Nalbanian (I think it was) and I recall thinking that I could not think of a Scottish tennis player. Some where in the course of that match I turned to my son – who probably had never witnessed his father shouting and generally nutting-off at a T.V. se till then – and said, with Scottish pride welling up in me “See that boy, son. He’s going to be one of your generation’s great champions!”

I know you saw it too! Why else would you be here tournament after tournament, match after match? Trying to arrange your days/nights to watch him play? Why else do you insist in taking that draining emotional ride?Yes, what f---ing waste!!

I am going to put myself on the line here! (Put my well-nurtured reputation as a level-headed kinda chap – stop sniggering Caz, etc! – at risk!) Can’t we do something? Can’t we do something to help him from “his own downfall”? Can we not organise a type of “Murray World’s Fan Petition”, appealing to Andy to seriously consider bringing on-board a proper, professional coach and somehow get it to his attention?

How unrealistic is this? How much, do you think, the concerns of a number – the bigger, the better – of true, dying-hard fans would mean to Andy?

I suppose we could possibly start by having a poll to see whether a petition is a valid idea or not?

Well thats rather a subjective view one you are entitled to as they are your personal inferrences - if we were perhaps all crystal ball mystics then we could make these statements with some degree of certainty, as we are not, who knows how it will all play out For Andy. All we can do is hope that he realises that something other than his phyisical capacity needs now to be improved in order he make that final step.